midloch Posted October 16, 2013 Share Posted October 16, 2013 Hi all, as I have Panasonic G6 the battery life is not the thing a like about it and what is more I shoot documentary in remote areas with no electricity... I came across this battery solution on youtube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GVA8kvEwb4k that gives at least 10 hours of recording! The thing is that this is for Panasonic GH2 that has the same battery as G6 ( 7,2 V) but the power station has 9V. I noticed that the charger for G6 has output 8,4V so do you think that 9V will not cause any damage if I do the same for G6? Thanx a lot! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jgharding Posted October 16, 2013 Share Posted October 16, 2013 Probably not! The Canons are rated for 7.2v from normal little batteries, but if you use the official adapter with 6AAs that's 9V, and they do fine. I'm totally buying one of these, very cheap and useful for many things, not just cameras! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
/p/ Posted October 16, 2013 Share Posted October 16, 2013 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jgharding Posted October 16, 2013 Share Posted October 16, 2013 haha V-loks are the beasts, but my my are they expensive. :blink: I'm intersted in the cheap 50 quid one as an LED light battery as well as a lightweight 5D battery, I wonder how long it'll last? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JohnBarlow Posted October 16, 2013 Share Posted October 16, 2013 130Wh - not too shabby at £125 jgharding 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jgharding Posted October 18, 2013 Share Posted October 18, 2013 Nice one! Do you know where you can get a similarly cheap charger? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JohnBarlow Posted October 18, 2013 Share Posted October 18, 2013 The above battery is a v-mount and can be found here http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/221258458850?ssPageName=STRK:MEWAX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1423.l2649 I am building a Scope Steadicam rig and got this: http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/360764269513?ssPageName=STRK:MEWNX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1439.l2649 I figure I can charge it on the mount with any 15v charger since it is a component level unit, however there are plenty of cheap v chargers on ebay If you want the OP's battery style, the cheapest (half price) I found is here: http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/380725018911?ssPageName=STRK:MEWAX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1423.l2649 V mount will get cheaper though and have the charge remaining indicators... jgharding 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jgharding Posted October 18, 2013 Share Posted October 18, 2013 Cool, thanks very much! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JohnBarlow Posted October 18, 2013 Share Posted October 18, 2013 Just realised that V battery comes with charger, still waiting for it to arrive though :( Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dishe Posted October 18, 2013 Share Posted October 18, 2013 I actually don't like the battery mentioned in the OPs video and others like it, because you will have no idea what the discharge status of the battery is while using it. I bought one of these on ebay for about $60: http://www.amazon.com/Naztech-PB15000-Universal-Charger-Extended/dp/B007URKIGC/ref=sr_1_cc_3?s=aps&ie=UTF8&qid=1382108393&sr=1-3-catcorr&keywords=15000+mah Over a year ago, except mine was 18000 instead of 15000mah. And it was a silver version, but otherwise identical unit. I had to record a concert and couldn't swap batteries in the middle of the show, so I wanted to be safe. This thing comes with tons of plugs, and a 5V USB DC-out plug that works independently of the regular DC out. So what I generally do is run the main DC out to the camera at 9v, and the 5v USB goes into my Tascam audio recorder. It powered everything I needed to go on for well over 8 hours. It comes with all the plugs I needed, and it worked so well that I've used it for all-day shoots (8+ hours) and have never had the battery run down on me yet! A couple of things you should know: The DC-coupler from Panasonic has a weird polarity- the positive and negative parts of the plug are the opposite of what is generally accepted in the electronics world. Some say this was done on purpose to keep parts being proprietary to Panasonic, but who knows. I bought a new standard sized plug from radio shack for less than $1, cut off the plug on the DC Coupler and attached my own with some solder and Sugru (I *love* sugru!). Plug works great, but for a less messy approach, I've seen some adapters for sale that might work too. As far as how the voltage thing works... there's been a ton of research on the GH2 doing this on other forums, but I'll give you the gist of it. These cameras have a range of voltage. The battery for the GH2/G6 is 7.2v fully charged, and as long as the camera recognizes it as a Panasonic battery (with the ID chip embedded inside), it will happily chug along until it reaches low enough that it is in danger of shutting off (I don't recall where that is, maybe 6.8v?), and will signal the camera to gracefully shut down so you don't lose your footage. But here's the thing- without an ID chip telling the camera it is a Panasonic battery, the camera WILL NOT ACCEPT an 7.2v power source. It will complain and say you aren't using authentic equipment. But it will accept a 9v one. Why? Because Panasonic's DC-coupler has no ID chip either. It's just a pass-through that feeds direct current to the battery cavity of the camera. It seems that Panasonic designed the camera to be able to tell if it is running off a battery vs AC adapter by looking at how much voltage is coming in. Is it more than 8.4v of direct current? Must be using that AC adapter, don't bother checking the battery ID. It is less than 8.4v? It must be a battery and we must require a chip ID! Long story short... assuming the G6 uses the same batteries and adapters as the GH2, it is designed to operate at 9v constant power. The problem is, it assumes that the source is consistent and not coming from a battery. That means that unlike using batteries, where it will detect voltage dropping if the battery is dying and gracefully shut off, here if your external battery pack drops too low it will just suddenly shut off without warning. So you really need to watch the voltage on the external battery. This is why I don't recommend the battery in that video above. It will work fine, but it has no battery meter and neither will the camera when using it. The one I linked to has a life meter on the LCD display, which is really wonderful if you need to keep an eye on it. JohnBarlow 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JohnBarlow Posted October 18, 2013 Share Posted October 18, 2013 You can also use one of these, just sayin :) http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/DC-3-3V-30V-Red-LED-Panel-Meter-Mini-Lithium-Battery-Digital-Voltmeter-/370921448298?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item565ca4236a Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dishe Posted October 18, 2013 Share Posted October 18, 2013 You can also use one of these, just sayin :) http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/DC-3-3V-30V-Red-LED-Panel-Meter-Mini-Lithium-Battery-Digital-Voltmeter-/370921448298?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item565ca4236a It's a little bit less friendly than a battery life meter built into the unit that can tell you how much of your battery has depleted already (instead of looking at a number and doing the math in your head). But sure, it's better than nothing! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
midloch Posted October 18, 2013 Author Share Posted October 18, 2013 I have just bought Anker for 40€ the cappacity is 14400mAh so I think my G6 will last at least about 12 hours what do U think? :-) : http://www.amazon.de/dp/B00BVV1ZY2/ref=pe_386171_37038021_pe_217221_31005211_M3T1_dp_1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dishe Posted October 20, 2013 Share Posted October 20, 2013 I have just bought Anker for 40€ the cappacity is 14400mAh so I think my G6 will last at least about 12 hours what do U think? :-) : http://www.amazon.de/dp/B00BVV1ZY2/ref=pe_386171_37038021_pe_217221_31005211_M3T1_dp_1 Looks good to me- now you just have to make sure you have a way to properly connect it to the camera (spliced wires, etc). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jgharding Posted October 22, 2013 Share Posted October 22, 2013 You can get dummy batteries for Canon EOS bodies, perhaps you can for Panasonic? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dishe Posted October 22, 2013 Share Posted October 22, 2013 You can get dummy batteries for Canon EOS bodies, perhaps you can for Panasonic? No no, that's a given. Panasonic sells the DCC8 coupler as part of their AC power adapter, as I mentioned above. The GH1 actually came with one in the box, and most of their cameras have a little door on the side of the battery compartment to let the cable fish out from. The problem is that they try to make it proprietary by using not only a less common plug size, but they actually swapped the polarity of the positive and negative from the usual layout (positive is almost ALWAYS in the middle). So even if you find a battery or AC adapter with a plug that fits, if you feed it 9v in the reverse polarity you could damage the sensitive electronics inside. There were quite a few members of a thread on DVXUser exploring these options that had to send in their cameras for repair. Be careful! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Babak Posted August 28, 2014 Share Posted August 28, 2014 @dishe thank you for you very useful post on the external battery solution. I have a GH2 and am looking for some reliable external battery and yours seems to be the one! I have a few question and will appreciate your reply: If the camera will shut off when the battery reaches a voltage bellow 8.4v, at which point do I have to switch the camera off manually (in order not to loose the recorder footage)? In other words will the battery's LCD indicator warn me before the selected 9v drops down? And for the correct polarity, what are the adaptors to use if I don't want to replace the plug on the DC-coupler (I am very bad with soldering...)? Thanks for your reply. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Babak Posted September 3, 2014 Share Posted September 3, 2014 I actually don't like the battery mentioned in the OPs video and others like it, because you will have no idea what the discharge status of the battery is while using it. I bought one of these on ebay for about $60: http://www.amazon.com/Naztech-PB15000-Universal-Charger-Extended/dp/B007URKIGC/ref=sr_1_cc_3?s=aps&ie=UTF8&qid=1382108393&sr=1-3-catcorr&keywords=15000+mah Over a year ago, except mine was 18000 instead of 15000mah. And it was a silver version, but otherwise identical unit. I had to record a concert and couldn't swap batteries in the middle of the show, so I wanted to be safe. This thing comes with tons of plugs, and a 5V USB DC-out plug that works independently of the regular DC out. So what I generally do is run the main DC out to the camera at 9v, and the 5v USB goes into my Tascam audio recorder. It powered everything I needed to go on for well over 8 hours. It comes with all the plugs I needed, and it worked so well that I've used it for all-day shoots (8+ hours) and have never had the battery run down on me yet! A couple of things you should know: The DC-coupler from Panasonic has a weird polarity- the positive and negative parts of the plug are the opposite of what is generally accepted in the electronics world. Some say this was done on purpose to keep parts being proprietary to Panasonic, but who knows. I bought a new standard sized plug from radio shack for less than $1, cut off the plug on the DC Coupler and attached my own with some solder and Sugru (I *love* sugru!). Plug works great, but for a less messy approach, I've seen some adapters for sale that might work too. As far as how the voltage thing works... there's been a ton of research on the GH2 doing this on other forums, but I'll give you the gist of it. These cameras have a range of voltage. The battery for the GH2/G6 is 7.2v fully charged, and as long as the camera recognizes it as a Panasonic battery (with the ID chip embedded inside), it will happily chug along until it reaches low enough that it is in danger of shutting off (I don't recall where that is, maybe 6.8v?), and will signal the camera to gracefully shut down so you don't lose your footage. But here's the thing- without an ID chip telling the camera it is a Panasonic battery, the camera WILL NOT ACCEPT an 7.2v power source. It will complain and say you aren't using authentic equipment. But it will accept a 9v one. Why? Because Panasonic's DC-coupler has no ID chip either. It's just a pass-through that feeds direct current to the battery cavity of the camera. It seems that Panasonic designed the camera to be able to tell if it is running off a battery vs AC adapter by looking at how much voltage is coming in. Is it more than 8.4v of direct current? Must be using that AC adapter, don't bother checking the battery ID. It is less than 8.4v? It must be a battery and we must require a chip ID! Long story short... assuming the G6 uses the same batteries and adapters as the GH2, it is designed to operate at 9v constant power. The problem is, it assumes that the source is consistent and not coming from a battery. That means that unlike using batteries, where it will detect voltage dropping if the battery is dying and gracefully shut off, here if your external battery pack drops too low it will just suddenly shut off without warning. So you really need to watch the voltage on the external battery. This is why I don't recommend the battery in that video above. It will work fine, but it has no battery meter and neither will the camera when using it. The one I linked to has a life meter on the LCD display, which is really wonderful if you need to keep an eye on it. @dishe thank you for you very useful post on the external battery solution. I have a GH2 and am looking for some reliable external battery and yours seems to be the one! I have a few question and will appreciate your reply: If the camera will shut off when the battery reaches a voltage bellow 8.4v, at which point do I have to switch the camera off manually (in order not to loose the recorder footage)? In other words will the battery's LCD indicator warn me before the selected 9v drops down? And for the correct polarity, what are the adaptors to use if I don't want to replace the plug on the DC-coupler (I am very bad with soldering...)? Thanks for your reply. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
2ge Posted April 19, 2015 Share Posted April 19, 2015 Hi guys,I wanted to do timelapse with my gh2, and...end up here I checked what is new, and before buying, I want confirm, these 2 things should be enough:http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00CBEDTCY/ - Fotga DMW-AC8 + DMW-DCC8 DC Coupler AC Power Adapter for Panasonic Lumix DMC-GH2http://www.amazon.com/dp/B007URKIGC/ - Naztech PB15000 Universal Power Bank Charger / Extended Battery for Laptops/Netbook/Cell Phones/Tablets/MP3/CamerasI have to do still some modifications, or it would be enough just to connect the connectors? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
leeys Posted April 19, 2015 Share Posted April 19, 2015 I really can't tell if the latter's tips will work with the Fotga's DMW-DCC8 knockoff. If they don't the most universal solution is to get a battery with an AC inverter. 2ge 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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